Labor Day Weekend Roadtrip

Make hay while the sun shines..Take road trips when you get a holiday!!!

It was Labor Day on the 7th of September and hence an extended weekend. Finally…a holiday..yaaay! Time for a road trip and the plan was to visit San Antonio (SA) and Sonora.

So we started at around 10:30 on Saturday morning. The weather was pleasant. It was overcast, but thankfully no rains. And finally, the 100+ days of hot Texas summer was soon gonna end. In fact Labor Day which is celebrated on the first Monday of September signified the official end of summer.

SA is only an hour and a half’s drive from Austin. En route to SA, we planned to visit a ‘drive through’ safari. I had been to one in New Jersey last summer and so I was expecting this one to be as fun filled as the one in Jersey.

The safari – Natural Bridge Wildlife Safari, is adjacent to the natural Bridge Caverns. On one of my earlier trips to SA, I had actually been to the cavern and it was great fun. However, the safari turned out to be an ‘OK’ show. There were not many wild animals…there were zebras, wilder beasts, ostriches, emus and deers of different kinds. I only hoped that there were some wild beasts, like tigers and lions roaming around (wink wink). But the highlight of the safari was I got to feed the Zebras…and yes..you bet I loved it :) and I must say the Zebras were a hungry lot! I had to try hard from keeping them from entering the car..lol…

Once we were done with the safari, we continued on our way to SA. On reaching SA, we checked into our hotel. The hotel was awesome. Our room was on the eleventh floor and the view of downtown SA was fantastic. We also got a view of SA’s popular attraction – The River Walk!

After a little nap (aren’t vacations supposed to give u rest!!!), it was time to explore SA. Our hotel was so ideally located, that we could travel on foot to see the places around. So we started, with visiting ‘The Alamo’. The Alamo is one of the historical places to see in SA. Originally, intended to serve as a home to missionaries, the Alamo today is also recognized for its role in the Texan Revolution of the 1800s.

The next stop was at ‘Ripleys Haunted Adventure’. Ok..so I am not the ghost hunters kind..so I was a little nervous going to this place. But I tried to put up a brave face as I entered the haunted house. To be on the safer side, I was right in the center..one family in front of me and another right behind me…hehe…that was a BIG comfort. There were two kids in the group as well. I was thinking I probably would be the only person screaming..but thankfully there were kids for company..lol. I had great fun here and though it was a little scary and was pitch dark at times, I managed to get out in one piece..glad that I was still alive after having seen dead bodies..blood and lunatics running all around !

Just beside Ripley’s Haunted Adventure was the Guinness World Record Museum…and whose picture did I see – A Guinness world record holder from India – Mr. Thyagi , and guess for what …the longest ear hair… ;)

Once we explored the places around the hotel, it was time to get back to the River Walk…the most beautiful and well…romanticccc place in SA ;)…This space would not suffice to describe the river walk, so I would rite another post on that.

Dinner that night was along the river-walk – burgers, potato crusted salmon, vegetable quesadilla (pronounced kesa-di-ya)..yum yum !After a good night’s sleep, we started on the drive to Sonora Caves, one of the most beautiful caves I have visited. Will keep you all posted on my adventures at Sonora in the following days…so keep reading :)

Beautiful Bryce !!!

The ‘Travel’ channel is one my favorite channels on TV. True to it’s name, most of their programs are geared towards travel explorations to different places. One of the programs ‘The Secrets of Zion and Bryce Canyon’ is the inspiration for this blog. Actually…it reminded me that a post on Bryce Canyon was long pending!! So here’s my attempt to capture the beauty of another natural wonder – BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK!!!

Bryce is located in the same state as Zion National Park, on which I had written a post last month, the state of the NBA Team ‘Jazz’..you guessed it right – “UTAH”!!!

The drive from Zion to Bryce was about two hours, but to me it seemed like just about a few minutes coz I felt I just didn’t have enough time to taken in the beauty that lay all around me. Towering mountains, large pine trees and stunning, peaceful meadows…well…I just ran out of words to describe how beautiful the scenery was. It was like staring at a beautiful painting!!

I was expecting Bryce to be similar to Zion, but I was in for a Big Big surprise…the two parks could not be more different. While water was the reason behind the formations of the Zion and Bryce Canyons, it took different forms in creating these two national parks. The Zion canyon was the eroding effect of the Virgin River, while Bryce canyon was formed by the eroding effect of water in the form of rain, ice and snow.

Bryce Canyon presented a magnificent picture of awesome rock formations. Huge peaks, beautifully carved by rain, snow and ice stood towering. As I looked around, I wondered how these towering narrow formations kept from falling apart. The formations were tall, they were narrow and yet were held together by some invisible force. The towering formations are called hoodoos, grottos, walls or arches, depending on the shape they took. As I stood at ‘Sunrise Point’ (one of the popular points to view sunrise) overlooking the canyon, it was hard to believe how something as simple as water could carve out such beautiful structures. Well…nature has its ways!

One of the popular trails at Bryce is the ‘Navajo’ trail. Starting at the Sunset Point, Navajo, pronounced ‘Nava-ho’, is a trail that takes you through the heart of bryce and through the towering hoodos. It’s about a 1.3 mile round trip that takes you down into the canyon and loops around as you make your way back up to Sunset point. While on the trail you get to see Two-Bridges, Thors Hammer and Wall Street. These names seem weird, but they are just names given to the different rock formations. As you get to the bottom of the trail, you enter a garden of pine and oak trees. At places, this trail gets steep, and one has to be careful so as to avoid a steep fall, especially so during the rains. But I visited this place in May and the timing was perfect. Like all other trails, going downhill on the Navajo trail was not difficult. As I kept going down and down, I realized how miniscule I felt near the towering hoodoos that stood guard all around. It was an amazing journey that showed the power of water! Once I got to the bottom of the trail, it was time to climb back up to where we started. This was a loop and hence we did not have to climb back up the same we came down. I have to confess, that climbing up was more strenuous, however I was complimented by a fellow traveler to be the only person he saw with a smile climbing up!!! But I guess that was at the beginning of the climb up…if only he had seen me half way up the trail…the comment would have been quite different ! lol…..

I do not know if I can ever put in words my experiences at bryce and zion, but I am glad that I was fortunate to visit these beautiful places in my lifetime and I sure wish I could go visit them again and a special thanks to the person who planned it all…thank you! :)

Vegetable Pulao (Indian Style Vegetable Rice)

This is one of the popular vegetarian recipes from India – Vegetable Pulao, which simply is, basmathi rice cooked with vegetables. The result is an absolutely delicious fare! It was the weekend and since I had cooked some chicken, I thought it would be great to cook some vegetarian rice to have with the chicken. So I started with the preparation hoping that it would turn out to be a great lunch! And thankfully…it turned out to be awesome :)

So lets start with the ingredients

1 cup basmati rice, cleaned and soaked in water for half an hour
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
Half cup diced carrots
Half cup chopped beans
Half cup fresh peas (this is purely optional)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2-3 green chilies slit in half
1 tbsp ghee (if you do not have ghee, you can use unsalted cooking butter)
2 tbsp oil
5 cloves
3-4 whole cardamoms
1” cinnamon
2 bay leaves
10- 12 cashew nuts
Salt to taste

Once you’ve got all the ingredients in place..it’s time to start cooking !!! So lets start…

In a pan, add the ghee and oil. Once hot, add the spices – bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon. Also add the cashew nuts. Fry them for a few minutes. You would soon start getting the aroma from the spices. Uhhhhh…smells good already!! Then add the onions and the chilies.

Continue to fry the onions till it turns golden brown. Then add the ginger garlic paste and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Now add the veggies – carrots and beans. We can add the peas a little later, since peas cook faster than carrots and beans. Cook the vegetables for a few minutes. Add peas and stir for a couple more minutes. Add salt and give the mix a good stir.

Now add the basmathi rice that has been soaked in water. Continue to fry the rice for a few minutes. Now add 2 cups water. Usually, the water to rice ratio is 2:1, ie, two cups water for one cup rice. However, sometimes, it could be more or less.

Once you have added the water, mix the rice mixture so that all the ingredients are mixed well. Make sure you don’t break the rice in the process. Basmathi rice is usually long grained, so we would not want to break the grains. Take the spoon against the edge of the pan and around, so that we don’t break the rice grains. Cover the pan and continue cooking till the rice is done. However, do not forget to peek occasionally into the pan as it cooks to make sure that the water is sufficient and the rice grains do not stick to the bottom of the pan and gets over fried/cooked. So gently stir the mixture occasionally. If more water is required, gently sprinkle additional water and continue cooking. Also ensure that you do not add too much water, that the rice turns to porridge :). The water should just be sufficient to cook the rice.

Once the rice is cooked, turn off the heat and remove from the stove. Keep it covered for a couple of minutes.

Vegetable Pulao is now ready..yaayyy! Serve hot with vegetable/meat curry and you have a wonderful tasty lunch. You can also make some onion raitha (salad made from onions and yogurt), which goes very well with the pulao. It’s simple and easy to make and I will post the recipe in a separate blog post.

My lunch that weekend was great…veg pulao with onion raitha and chicken fry….yummmm!!! Hope you enjoy making the dish and eating it too…. :) …Adios!!!

Claypit - Austin, TX

Been a while...so time for another post and another restaurant review !!! Again..this is a desi restaurant, but before I proceed further... CLAYPIT totally rocks!

Claypit is located in downtown Austin. Downtown Austin is the popular weekend hangout spot...wat with rows and rows of pubs, night clubs, live music and well...a lot of colorful people (a wideeee grin :D). I have been to claypit a number of times, and there has never been a time when I have returned disappointed!

They claim to be one of the best Indian restaurants in Austin..and trust me...they truly are ! I haven't been to their lunch buffets, but I have had dinner there plenty of times...their food tastes authentically desi...yum yum !! So for all those who miss..hot and spicy indian food...this is the place to go. From their appetizers to the entrées… they have it all. Not to forget their desserts. I can’t really rave about their desserts coz I haven’t tasted those...but I can go on and on about their appetizers and entrées.
Their menu is great...from veg to non-veg...they have it all. From naans and rotis...to tandoori chicken...biriyani...and well even meen curry (fish curry)...their spread is mouth watering. I was fortunate to taste their naans, meen curry, tandoori chicken bites, lamb roganjosh, lamb biriyani...and the list seems never endless (now dont get me wrong...I dint eat it all at the same time !!!) Every morsel was mouth watering and tasty..with authentic indian taste. And I must specially mention their biriyani...we were skeptical to order biriyani coz not many Indian restaurants in the US serve good desi biriyani...but Claypit served such tasty lamb biriyani (yummm!!)..quite unlike what I have never tasted elsewhere. The lamb roganjosh was great as well. I cannot say much about the tandoori chicken bites, coz I felt that the meat was not well marinated as I did not get the taste of the masala...although I must confess that it looked deliciously appetizing!

Enough said about the food..lets talk about the decor and the atmosphere. The decor was simple and inviting..wooden floors...natural walls (limestone ?? not sure...)...little floating candles...and just pure warmth...this is a place that welcomes all :)....

So if you have been yearning to eat desi food..Claypit is the place to be. The place is a litle pricey..but hey...if the food's good..its worth the price ! But remember...this place gets real crowded...so dont forget to make a reservation...and one small tip...ask to be seated at the basement...it gives you a more private relaxed feel, the only drawback being...it might get a little too hot down there during the Texas summer !

If you want to enjoy great tasting, delicious and authentic Indian food...dont miss Claypit ! Cheers !!

Tandoori Hut..A Desi Restaurant

This is my second attempt at writing restaurant reviews & today the review is on a restaurant that serves desi food and its called 'Tandoori Hut'. We had actually passed by this restaurant a couple of weeks earlier and the name 'Tandoori' caught my attention coz I am a big fan of tandoori food. And finally I got to visit this place for lunch yesterday.

To start off the review, the appearance and the ambience of the place was not very welcoming. The restaurant decor...well...it left asking for more...a 'lot lot more'. Nor was there a cheerful person at the front desk to welcome you. So we walked into this seemingly quiet place and were seated at a corner table (well...there was just only one other family around..so it had to be quiet. Can you imagine...at noon on a sunday afternoon you would expect any restaurant to be buzzing with activity. Sadly...not this one !) . Even the table arrangement was pretty shabby. Not a good first impression at all !!!

So we put behind the 'not-so-great' first impression and began our lunch. It was a buffet lunch. In a land where salads are an important part of any meal, the salads served here were not even close to appetizing. As I write this blog, I am not able to recall the salads, coz it was so badly presented that I just had a glimpse of it. Moving on to the other food..well...they did have both vegetarian and non-vegetarian...they had a couple of chicken dishes and surprisingly even beef (that was veryyy surprising, coz very few Indian restaurants serve beef). Their chicken tikka tasted absolutely lovely. It was well cooked and you could taste the wonderful masala (just goes to show how well marinated it was). But unfortunately, that seemed to be THE only dish to get a 4 star as far as taste was concerned, and yes off course the fresh nan too, which was made fresh and served hot at your table. I could probably rate the nan at four and a half out of five !!

But for these two dishes, there was not another dish that made you scream out and say 'Whowww....thats some awesome Indian food'. Their other chicken dishes seemed to lack in flavor, their dhals and veg curry seemed way off taste. Even something as popular as channa and potatoes left us wondering what was wrong with the taste!! Surprisingly, this place did not serve paneer. I say surprising coz there has never been a single tandoori restaurant that I have visited that did not serve naan and paneer !! So being a paneer fan, this was a little disappointing too !!

Finally, it was time for some desserts!!! But well..where were the desserts ? Ok...found it...tucked away in the middle of other food was 'kesari'. Just one dessert ? Thats seems weird !! Oh ok... I was wrong...there was another sweet at the other end of the table near the salad ! Well..that looked like some milk sweet...Milk Khoa..kheer ? No idea !! Coz there was no name card displaying what the dish was. Another black mark for the way the food was presented !! And let me tell you this…the desserts did not taste great either.

Usually, the way the food is presented is very important in a buffet setting. It starts with salads and appetizers...moves on to the main course and then ends with the desserts !! And every dish has a neatly placed name card to indicate what it was. But it looks like this restaurant tried to override all the rules of neat presentation !!! No name cards..no clean presentation...and not so great tasting food !! Tandoori Hut was just not a place that I would want to visit again.

But before I forget to mention, their buffet was about two to three dollars less than other places. But that still does not justify the below average spread and taste that this place offered !!! So to sum it up...Tandoori Hut was a disappointing experience!!

Truly Zion !!!

Have you ever gone through moments where you have been amazed at the beauty around you and wondered at the wisdom of the Almighty who created it ? Well...I did..when I visited Zion National Park in Utah. I am a nature lover, but I definitely was not prepared for what was awaiting me in Zion.

When I was first told that we were going to Utah, I was wondering what was popular in Utah. I had never heard of Utah being a traveler's haven, so I was skeptical on what it would hold for us.

Neither did I know what a National Park was, nor had I ever visited one before and hence at that moment, I thot a national park would merely be a vast grassland (blame my ignorance !!!). But I was wrong and I was in for a BIG surprise...and a pleasant surprise indeed it was.

Zion was an amazingly beautiful place. As we drove through the park, climbing higher in elevation as we turned each bend, I was stunned by the beauty of the huge red rocks and formations around me. The weather was heavenly and I was glad that we had left the hot Texas summer behind. Zion seemed to be place out of a fairy tale, all around was mountainous huge rock formations, some of which was blasted to create a road for modern day park visitors. As you drive through this wonderland, stories of native indians & early explorers take you back to ancient times..where native indians made their dwelling among the mountains, hunted deers and other mountain animals for food, made fire from stone...and lived as nomads....where early explorers used donkeys/mules to travel and braved the dangers of an unkonown land, to discover the beauty that lay around.

If you thought that there were just rocks and rocks and more rocks, you are mistaken. There a number of hiking trails and observations points that take you high up the mountains to view the natural wonders of zion. From the canyon overlook trail, to the emerald waters trail to the hike to angels landing, and many many others..this is just the place to be if you are a nature lover!!! But if your one with a fear for heights...well...all I would say is ...garner the courage to overcome your fear and I assure you, it would be worth it :)

This post would get too long if I was to detail the wonderful trails I went on. I will be back, with another post on the trails. Till then...hope you liked the read so far. Adios !!! :)

PF Chang's China Bistro

When your in the land where people look at customer reviews for almost everything..hotels..travel...electronics...housing...and just about anything, you get driven to start writing reviews too !!!

So here's my first attempt at writing reviews on the restaurants that I have been to. Last night I had dinner at PF Changs, a chinese bistro in Autin, TX. It was not my first time there, and like everyother time I was looking forward to some good chinese food and you bet they did not disappoint.

Chinese food is real popular in India and being a big fan of it, I was in for a lot of disappointment whenever I tried the local chinese restaurants here in the US. I was almost giving up hope on savouring good Chinese fare which satisfies the Indian palate. Chinese food in the US tastes wayyyy different from what you get in India, and you would be lucky if you could find a place that served chinese food to suit the Indian taste. I guess I was lucky :)

If your among the desi population who loves chinese food, dont miss visiting PF Changs. The menu is great and the food tastes even better. The food in its unique way suits the Indian taste. Try their kung pao chicken, dan dan noodles or their dali chicken and you would be left wanting for more. I was never a big fan of noodles, but it was here that I developed a love for this and I dont regret it at all.

But before you visit this place, you might want to make a reservation, coz like all other popular restaurants, the wait time can sometimes be more than 15 mins, especially on the weekend. So a simple call will make sure you can get a seat easily. And thats not it, during peak hours service might be a little slow. But I assure you, once served, you would forget all about the longgg wait times !!

So all you folks who love some good chinese food, dont miss PF Chang's. My mouth's already watering ;)